News

The source of series of pioneering PV technologies is set to become 100% solar powered. The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has announced the signing of a PPA that will see it procure all of its electricity from the 200 MW Sunraysia Solar Farm in rural New South Wales.

All forms of renewable energy will be cost competitive with traditional generation sources by 2020. This was one of the key findings in the latest report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). It was delivered yesterday at IRENA’s 8th annual Assembly in Abu Dhabi.

Risen Energy Co. Ltd is gearing up to begin production at a new, 5 GW solar PV cell and module manufacturing facility in China. A spokesperson for the company tells pv magazine manufacturing will begin this January 17.

It’s just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, both locally and abroad.

The latest in a series of international players in the residential storage space, French hybrid inverter supplier Imeon Energy has announced plans to open a new service center in Melbourne, providing further evidence of Australia’s attractiveness in this market.

China was the global leader in 2017 clean energy investment, says a new report. On the solar front, the country accounts for 60% of all cell production; and will continue to lead installation developments for at least the next five years. New 2020 targets are expected to be set. In the battery arena, Chinese companies are also set to dominate.

Large-scale storage began to gain a lot of attention in 2017, particularly after Elon Musk’s famed ‘100 days’ tweet back in March. Now that this project has proved an initial success, it looks like more big batteries are on the way for the National Electricity Market (NEM).

SolarReserve’s 150 MW solar thermal power plant has been granted development approval by the South Australian Government, paving the way for construction to begin this year.

The company also says that it has begun installation of the Solar Roof on the homes of non-employee homeowners.

Data from the Clean Energy Regulator shows that Australia is nearing two million installed rooftop PV systems, having reached 1,778,687 as of the beginning of December 2017.